Romans 12:9-21

The χαρίσματα, gifts, are different, as we have just seen. But there is a gift which is at the root of all the rest, and which ought to be common to all believers, that of all those who have no other, viz. love. The church, gained by faith in divine love, lives by love. All who believe, love. When this love is sincere, it produces in every believer a spontaneous ministry, which is carried out in his whole life by the manifold activity of love. This beneficent activity is exercised, first, toward the sympathetic elements the believer finds around him, Romans 12:9-16; then toward the hostile elements which he happens to meet, whether within the church itself or without, Romans 12:17-21.